BOZEMAN — Three local teams are just days away from a state championship as the All-Class state volleyball tournaments get underway this morning at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

In Class AA, Flathead (15-7) is alone representing the region, while Columbia Falls (16-3) and Whitefish (12-6) each are part of the eight-team Class A field.

The Bravettes were the only team to beat Western AA champion Missoula Sentinel during the regular season but finished a game behind the Spartans to earn the second seed out of the West. Flathead earned a bye all the way to today’s quarterfinals, and will be on the court for the first time in 11 days when they take on Billings Skyview (16-13) at 4 p.m.

“(The time off) is something we will be talking about tomorrow before we get to the gym and acknowledging that fact,” Bravettes coach Courtney Baker said.

“We’re going to have to come out with higher energy to combat the fact that we haven’t competed against another team in so long.”

Three-time defending champion Billings Senior (26-2) once again enters the Class AA tournament as the team to beat. The Broncs were unbeaten in Eastern AA play and would be Flathead’s second-round opponent tonight at 8 p.m. if both win this afternoon.

“The girls are more focused than I’ve ever seen them,” Baker said of her team.

“And we’ve been talking, dreaming more so, and making sure that they know that coming to Bozeman wasn’t the goal. The goal is to leave Bozeman with a championship.

“We’re here and we’re super excited to be here, but we want more.”

Columbia Falls and Whitefish ran away with the Northwestern A with identical 5-1 conference records, but each ran into some difficulty at last week’s Western A divisional.

The Wildkats swept Whitefish on Saturday before losing to Butte Central in the semifinals. The Bulldogs’ loss to their rivals gave them a fourth-place finish while Columbia Falls ended the tourney in third.

“Divisionals woke them up a little bit,” Columbia Falls coach Jessy Matthews said.

“We’ve used that as motivation and them realizing that they can’t not all be playing together at any point if they want to reach the end goal.”

With only the top four seeds from the divisional advancing to the state finals, both Whitefish and the Wildkats face challenging first-round matchups as the lower-seeded teams.

Whitefish opens the tournament today at 10 a.m. against Eastern A divisional champion Belgrade (17-6) while Columbia Falls squares off against Billings Central (16-4) at 2 p.m.

“We’ve talked a lot that we’re lucky to be where we’re at,” Whitefish coach Jackie Fuller said. “Only eight teams in the state of Montana are here and there are a lot of teams at home right now.

“This is another season and everybody’s got a chance to bring home the gold.”

The All-Class tournament features eight teams each in Class AA, A, B and C. The event concludes Saturday when champions will be crowned in all four classes.